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Ebola virus hits closer to home

Since March 21, Ebola has killed 632 people in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, making it the largest outbreak ever of the deadly virus. The challenges aren’t just in West Africa. They’re here in Texas, too. In a lab that he describes as “a box within a box within a box,” Ebola scientist Thomas Geisbert, at UTMB, has dedicated 23 years of his life to finding a cure for the disease. It seems to have paid off. With a $26 million grant from the NIH, his team has come up with a vaccine that works in monkeys. “We can completely protect monkeys with this vaccine with just a single shot,” he said. But he’s frustrated. “You look at this outbreak and the doctor [infected with Ebola] in Sierra Leone,” he said. “The people most at risk are the people who put their life on the line, and it would be great to vaccinate those people.” The scientists have done their part. It’s up to policymakers and regulators to push the vaccine through the next step, which involves testing its safety in healthy human volunteers.